


Day and Night

by Just_Me_Here



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 23:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19841230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Me_Here/pseuds/Just_Me_Here
Summary: Nox has always been in your head, at first he was your friend, your only friend, but then he was not.Lux comes in later, appearing to come as a friend, but after Nox, you're not so sure about her.You try to live a life as normal as you can with what you have to deal with, but you mess up at a very wrong time in a very wrong place. Next thing you know, you've been put in a pristine white room and can do nothing but wait for whoever put you there to actually show up.





	1. Jump

“Come on, darling. You know you want to do it. Just walk!” His voice, no more than a whisper, seems to echo inside of your head.You’re so close to the edge, just one step forward and you’ll fall. You know it. He knows it.

“I...I want to…” Your voice is weak, trembling. A part of you knows that contrary to what he claims, you don't actually want to fall. However he has always been able to get you to do what he wants you to, somehow making you feel has if you are acting out of your own volition, like his choices are your own.

“Yes, you do. Go on then, do it!” You can feel his presence all around you. He has never left you alone for very long. You feel a soft pressure on your shoulders encouraging you to move forward. Taking in a deep breath, you clench your eyes shut, feeling the tears that still manage to escape them, and do what he asks of you.  
____

He claims his name to be Nox and you don’t remember when he first spoke to you. It seems like he has always been there. Sometimes offering nothing more than a few comments expressing his opinion on things throughout the day, other times telling you to do things, convincing you that you want to do them simply by telling you that that is so. It seemed as if the older you got and the more things he asked of you, the easier it became to tell that you did not want to perform the actions he ordered you to, but it was impossible to fight the part of you that told you they were your choices.

You may not remember the first time he spoke to you, but you do remember the first thing he asked of you. You had recently turned ten and his voice already a long time companion. Your parents believed him to be nothing more than an imaginary friend and at first they had been okay with it, even encouraging. However the older you got the less okay with it they were, your mother more so than your father. It didn’t take long for her to convince your father that something was wrong with you, that you were too old for imaginary friends, and what an embarrassment it was when you mentioned him in public. The night he finally caved to her, you were sound asleep in your bedroom.

Nox woke you up with gentle whispers and told you that you were thirsty, you hadn’t realized that you were until he told you so. You got up to go to the kitchen, forgoing your slippers to make as little noise as possible. You were almost at the bottom of the stairs when you heard your name in your mother's voice, you froze for a second before realising that she wasn't addressing you. You almost began going back up the stairs, not wanting to be caught out of bed past your bedtime, especially when your mother sounded so upset. You stayed when Nox whispered how much you wanted to stay and listen to what your parents are saying. You heard your mother talk about how strange you were, that Nox shouldn’t be your only friend, that you were too old for him. She said that she wanted to have you checked out, take you to a psychiatrist. It hurt, you thought they believed you, that they knew Nox was real. Your father attempted to calm her down, telling her that you’d grow out of it eventually, that hurt you too. They seemed to be talking about it for ages when your father concedes, saying that they could look for someone the next day, but only one appointment, just to ease your mother’s worries. You slowly go up the stairs to your room when your father embraces your mother, the conversation seemingly over and your thirst long forgotten..

After hearing your parents conversation you laid in bed unable to fall asleep. You were still awake when your parents passed by your door, presumably to get to theirs. Nox hadn’t stopped talking to you, claiming that your mother had no idea of what she was talking about, assuring you of his realness .He told you that if your mother truly loved you she wouldn’t think you crazy, she’d believe you, and if your father loved you he would have never agreed to send you to a psychiatrist. Only crazy people went to psychiatrists, so he clearly thought you were crazy too. He whispered that he was the only one that loved you. He didn’t think you were crazy. He, unlike your parents, didn’t want you to be put in a loony bin. He convinced you that your parents were just like the other children at school that mocked for being friends with him, only because they weren't special enough to have been chosen by him..

Hours passed before he uttered those words, the words you remember to this day. “You don’t want them to put in the crazy house. Do you?” You shook your head as you repeated his words. ”You want to make sure they can’t put you there don’t you?” You didn’t know where his line of questioning is going but you nodded once more, repeating him. “You want to go into your father’s office and open the bottom desk drawer.” This time you moved to follow his instructions after repeating him, you didn’t know why but you did want to go and do it. You silently headed downstairs again, this time not being interrupted by anything. 

When you opened the drawer your eyes widened. Inside the bottom drawer of your fathers desk, was a gun. A gun you had no idea even existed beforehand. He told you that you wanted to pick it up and go to your parents' room to make sure they can not possibly send you away. As you head up the stairs he carefully instructs you on the steps you have to take to successfully get away with doing what you want to. By the time you open your parents bedroom door, the safety of the gun was already off. 

The first shot went into your mother, it felt like there was something gently guiding your hand. She didn’t even have time to be disturbed by the loud gunshot bang, before the bullet went through her head. Your father startled awake at the sound, his eyes were immediately drawn to your hands firmly grasping his gun and then seemingly seeing something behind you, something you couldn’t see, and staying fixed on it, pleading, at whatever he was seeing. He tried to talk, but you pressed the trigger before he could.

Nox, once more instructed you on what to do to avoid being blamed for what happened. You felt grateful for him not being mad at what you’d done, for still being your friend, despite the act you’d committed.To the day he made you fall, only you and him knew what truly transpired in your house the night your parents died.. When the police arrived that night, after a neighbors 911 call, you were taken into state custody and later, due to a lack of any known living relatives, placed into foster care, where you stayed, bouncing from home to home, for six years before deciding you couldn’t handle it anymore and ran away from the home you were in at the time.

It was during those six years that you realized what Nox was doing to you, and when you first had that realization all the guilt, grief and pain of every bad he had you do, big or small, seemed to hit you at once. You cried for what felt like forever. He knew you knew, and you knew he knew you knew, but that didn’t stop him from only speaking to you softly, as if you still thought he was your friend.  
___

It was your eighteenth birthday, but you haven't celebrated it in over eight years and this one wouldn’t be any different. Afraid to get too close to anybody lest Nox make you hurt them, he hadn’t only made you hurt your parents, you had no one to celebrate it with. You believed he enjoyed being your only friend, even if you hadn’t thought of him as anything remotely close to a friend in years. It was early in the morning and you were on your daily jog, headphones in with the music blaring as loud as is could go. You had found that when the noises outside of your head are high enough, you couldn’t really hear Nox all that well, and so he had a harder time ordering you around. Due to that knowledge you tended to have your headphones, sound as loud as possible as often as you can. Nox complains about it when you stop, but he hasn’t made you not do it yet.

You had a few set paths when you went jogging, Nox told you when you woke up that you wanted to take the one that went through the trail in the woods on the outskirts of the town you were residing in. Even your headphones wouldn't stop you from following his instructions, he’d been smart and had already told you exactly what he wanted of you. You turned off the music and removed your headphones, completing the last of the instructions he had given you in the morning..In a steady run it had taken you almost an hour to reach the cliffs edge he seemed to want you in..  
____

You’re falling, and then you’re not. You feel your descent slow down to a stop. You’re too scared to open your eyes. Through your eyelids you can see a bright light. Curiosity gets the best of you and you finally open your eyes. Your body seems to be floating in the air, surrounded by an incredibly bring light, That light. loses some of its intensity as you begin to slowly ascend. You can hear Nox screaming in your head, he’s never raised his voice like that before, but he doesn’t seem to be addressing you, that has also never happened.

”You son of a bitch! You can’t be here, she’s mine! I claimed her first! You ca...” There’s a chuckle in your head, it’s not Nox and it’s not you. You don’t speak until your feet touch the cliffs edge you’d been standing on before.

“Who… Who are you?” You’re almost too afraid to ask, but you have to know.

“You may call me Lux, child. I do have to apologize for how long it has taken me to find you. I was almost too late.” The voice is feminine. It’s soft, but so is Nox’s.

“Too late for what?” You ask. “My death?”

“No, his ascension. You’re eighteen now are you not? He was the only one here, if you had fallen down that cliff he would have been able to take over your body. You’d still be there, but you’d just be able to watch.” You are extremely confused, but now him having chosen this town for you to live in started to make a bit of sense.

“Is he… Is he gone?” You’ll question her about everything else later, but for now that feels like the most important bit. You hear her sigh.

“I’m afraid not, child, but now that I’m here Nox will only awake at night, I can’t stop that. Just has him being here means I can only be awake during the daytime.” A very soft ‘Oh’ escapes your lips. “However, my presence here gives you more strength against his compulsion.” You have so many questions about what’s happening, some of which you had already attempted to ask Nox, but had never received an answer too. Lux seems to know what you want to ask her. “I can not give you the answers you seek right now, but in time you will find out everything you need to know. I promise you.”

You can’t trust her, not after only a few words exchanged between you two. At one point you trusted Nox, and that did not get you anywhere good, but you have no other option. You are now stuck with Lux just as you have been for so long stuck with Nox. You can only hope she’s not lying, pretending to be something she is not. Posing as a friend, but only waiting for the right moment to show you how much of an idiot you are for thinking of her as such.


	2. White Room

When you wake up, you don’t recognize your surroundings. This has happened more often than you’d ever, willingly admit. Alcohol seems to quiet Nox down a little. What’s strange about this particular morning, is that you woke up in a room that has more resemblance to a prison cell, hospital room mix than a proper bedroom. In the room there’s a bed, you’re laying in it, the bed frame is white and metal, the bed-sheets match it in color, so do the walls, and the toilet in the far corner of the room. You can’t help the look of disdain that crosses your face when you first spot it. Lux agrees with you when you think that you’re not using that. There’s a door, a very heavy looking also white, metal door, it’s sealed shut and has no handle. You know you probably won’t have much luck with it, not without using your powers. Even if you weren’t afraid of whoever has put you in this white room discovering your powers, or them simply confirming their existence, you’re not going to be able to use the one that will most likely help you burn a hole in that door for at least a few hours. Not until Nox is with you.

Over the years you’ve found out that both that depending on who is with you, you have access to a variety of different powers. Lux’s are easier to control, according to her, because she willingly shares them with you. Nox’s not so much, which you think sucks, seeing as his are more dangerous, considerably more dangerous. They both seem to share a common power, or at least it is the only shared power that you have access too, flight. The first time you grew wings was during the night, obviously Nox’s. They are black bat-like wings, and their first appearance hurt, a lot. However, luckily, the more times they sprouted from your back, the less intense the pain was, until eventually it faded to nothing. You’re convinced that the only reason you were in so much pain, was because Nox wanted you to be. Growing the white dove-like wings during the day has never hurt, not even the first time.

‘Who do you think put us here?’ You ask Lux without actually talking.

“I don’t know, but whoever it was doesn’t seem to want to cause us harm, at least for now.” You hum in agreement.

‘I guess, but there’s still time. I am glad I didn't wake up restrained to the bed’ You pauses in your thought. ‘Or something worse.’

You don’t know how long you’ve been in the room for but you know that night has arrived when you hear Nox. “You know, we can very easily get out of here if you want to. Maybe you couldn’t with her but now you’re with me.”

‘Shut up. I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now.’ You know that he wants to keep talking, but you’re hungry, you’re thirsty, and you’re not using that godforsaken toilet, not when whoever has put you in this room could be watching.

“I’m just saying, we could burn a hole in any of these walls, or the door I'm sure we could take whoever comes after us.” He knows that thought has crossed her mind.

‘Nox. Seriously, Shut. The fuck. Up.’ What you wouldn’t give for just a single shot of vodka. You’ve gone longer without both food and water. As someone who’d fallen through the cracks of foster care and then turned into a teenage runaway, going without food or water at some point was a given. However, that hasn’t happened in years, your body isn't used to going without those things for more than just a day anymore.

As he kept on talking you tried to focus on literally anything else, but with nothing but white blandness surrounding you, you had no such luck. You’ve never hated that color as much as you do at this moment. You’re shaking, you feel as if you’re about to blow, not good with the powers you currently have, when a small rectangular section of the door opens. A plate and a bottle containing a clear liquid slide in, before it closes again, just as quickly as it opened. Your eyes stuck to it as soon as it opened and stayed there for a few long minutes after it closed.

“You’re not gonna eat that are you? Even I don’t think you’re that stupid.” It’s only after he says that that your eyes turn to focus on the food, it looks good, not what you were expecting. The water bottle seems untouched, the seal still intact. When you open it and bring it to your nose you detect no foreign smells, and Lux was right, they haven't hurt you yet. You haven't given them anything they might want yet, so they most likely won’t hurt you without at least telling you what they expect of you. You take a sip, no out of place strange flavors, so you take a few more before closing it and turning your attention to the food. It looks delicious, a bite shows that it tastes even better. You shrug and, doing your best to ignore what Nox keeps babbling on about, pick up the food and water, sit down on the floor with your back leaning on the bed, and feast.

‘See, nothing happened.’ You tell him a while after you finish eating. You can tell he’s pissed, more than he usually is. Ever since the night you met Lux he doesn’t want you to die anymore. You don’t know what to do with the plate so you leave it in the place they had left it at a few minutes later the rectangular section opens again and someone takes it away.

“You were lucky, next time you may not be.” He grumbles.

‘Yeah, well, I’ll take my chances.’

You’re laying on the bed, Nox is still hammering on about using your powers to escape, kill everyone who gets in the way. With nothing else to focus on it gets harder and harder to ignore him and, as much as you want to you can’t seem to fall asleep, it’s not just his annoying voice that’s keeping you up, if you try hard enough you can fall asleep even with his incessant talking, it’s the feeling of being watched.

Lux is back when breakfast food is passed through the door, she understands your logic has to why the food should be safe, but is still a bit hesitant. The food, again, doesn’t seem to do anything to you. 

Later, when the door slides open, Lux is still with you. The urge to run is strong but you stay still on the bed, only your eyes turning towards the moving door. It doesn’t open completely when a woman walks in, she’s carrying two plates in one hand and two water bottles in the other, the door closes behind her.


	3. Silent Treatment

The plates and bottles are set on the bed next to you. The woman, who you can’t help but stare at a little bit, makes no move to reach for any of them after setting them down. She does, however, make a move to sit on the bed and your legs scooch up so she doesn’t sit on them. As a result, you’re sitting with your legs crossed. She’s staring at you with a raised eyebrow. Her eyes move to the food between you both and then back to you, it takes Lux telling you that she probably expects you to pick one of the bottles and plates for you to do so.

There’s, what appears to be, the beginnings of a smirk on her face when you clearly stumble to get one of the plates, not really caring which one. You blush and count yourself lucky Nox isn’t the one with you, even if according to Lux, he should be joining you shortly.

Neither of you speak, you because you don’t know what to say to the person who’s with the people who have essentially kidnapped you. Her, you don’t know. Lux claims that silence often makes people talk, if that is what they are trying to do, they clearly don’t know of Lux and Nox, you don’t need people outside of your head to have a full on conversation. Nox comes when you’re almost done with your meal, he agrees with what Lux has said, but of course adds his two cents in, if you killed your visitor and possible kidnapper, then she’d have a real reason not to talk.

You wish he was the one giving you the silent treatment. Once you both finish your meals. she leaves without a word. You realize that you probably should have been paying more attention to her than to the beings in your head, when you notice that you don’t know if she saw anything strange about you, anything that might have pointed out that you were, what others would assume as, talking to yourself. Nox is mad at you for that, even if he wasn't paying any attention either. and actually contributed to your distraction.

Since Nox is the one who is currently keeping you company, it’s safe to say that it is night again, you’re still being watched and he is still being annoying, so sleep seems to elude you once more and that’s dangerous. Less sleep means you’re mentally weaker. You’re more susceptible to Nox’s suggestions, you have no doubt that if he can, he will make you hurt anyone necessary to get you out of where you are. You can’t let that happen. You decide that you’ll wait for just one more day, if by tomorrow night you’re still being constantly monitored, then, and only then, will you do something you truly don’t wish to do.

Day comes with you having spent all night awake. You don’t have time to discuss your plan with Lux when the same redhead from the day before enters, again with two plates of food and bottles of water. Everything goes the same, including her leaving after eating without talking, however this time you pay more attention to her, even when you talk with Lux, you can’t read her at all. You don’t know if she can tell you’re talking to someone or not, so you do what you consider to be the smart thing and ask Lux to be quiet while the other woman is in your room, or cell.

When she leaves you finally tell Lux what you’re planning, she’s not thrilled about it but she understands why you have to do it. The woman comes by two more times, today she leaves before Nox shows up.  
___

‘Lux?’ You think.

“Yes?”

‘I don’t think I can do it…’ You’re beginning to have doubts, Nox’s powers can be hard to control.

“You’re not going to hurt them if you go through with it, but you may if you don’t.” You feel a whisper of a touch on your cheek. "Even if I won't be present, I’m still here with you. You’ve trained so hard and you can resist him so well, I know you can do it.” She leaves before saying anything else. You don’t set your plan into motion as soon as he shows up, you wait.

You’re sure it’s been hours when you finally, reluctantly, let out a whisper. ”You want to delete all the footage you have of this room tonight.“ You pause for a second. “And you want to let me out of this… facility, preferably to a high place, without anyone else knowing.”

“I would have thrown in a ‘You’ll want to kill yourself if you fail', but good girl.” You don’t like it when he praises you which is probably why he does it.

It takes a little longer than you would have liked for the man, who was watching you, to show up. When he uses a key-card with someone else's face to open a few doors on your way out, you understand why. He leads you through empty corridors and rooms. You hope they won’t hurt him for what he did to help you. 

When you’re out, you realize you’re on top of a New York building. You weren’t expecting this. You’d been nowhere near New York prior to waking up in the white room. Before you fly away you turn to him one last time. “You don’t want to remember exactly why you helped me.”

You don’t realize until it's too late that you may have messed up in your wording of what you wanted him to do. You asked him to delete the footage of the room, yet you used your powers outside of it, they must have more cameras than the one’s in the room they assigned you. You don’t even realize it until Nox points it out, sounding way more amused then he should, considering that he doesn’t want you to be caught anymore than you do. Or so you think so until you realize that he may have figured out that if you had been sleepless in that room for a few more days he may have regained his control over you.

You’re not surprised you messed up not having much practice with his hard to control powers. You hope Lux is not too disappointed with you.


End file.
